What are program prerequisites and unlock rules?
If you've ever built a structured coaching program, you've probably run into this problem: clients skip ahead to week 8 before they've done the foundational work in week 1, or they unlock a high-intensity module before they're ready for it. Program prerequisites and unlock rules solve exactly that — they let you control the order in which your clients move through your program's weeks, days, and tasks, so the learning experience unfolds the way you designed it.
In Coachful, unlock rules are conditions you attach to program content that prevent it from becoming visible or interactive until a specific trigger is met. Prerequisites work hand-in-hand with unlock rules: a prerequisite says "you must complete X before you can access Y." Together, they give you surgical control over the pacing of any program — whether that's a 6-week mindset course, a 12-week body transformation, or an ongoing executive coaching curriculum.
TL;DR
- Unlock rules live on individual weeks, days, and tasks inside your program settings.
- Triggers include: time-based (unlock on a specific day after enrollment), completion-based (unlock after a prior task or day is marked complete), and manual (coach unlocks for a specific client).
- Prerequisites are completion-based unlock rules applied to a whole week or module — require the previous week to be 100% complete before the next appears.
- You can mix and match rule types within the same program.
- Unlock rules apply per-client, so one client's progress never affects another's access.
Why unlock rules matter for client outcomes
Coaching programs fail when clients feel overwhelmed or, equally, when they feel unchallenged. Giving a client access to 10 weeks of content on day one sounds generous — in practice it causes decision fatigue and dropout. Research on online learning consistently shows that paced, sequenced content delivery increases completion rates compared to self-directed open access.
Unlock rules also protect your intellectual property. A clearly sequenced program signals professionalism and makes clients feel guided rather than left to browse a content library. Coaches using Coachful who enable week-level prerequisites consistently report higher session attendance, because clients arrive knowing exactly what they should have worked on since the last call.
There's a retention argument too. When the next week "drops" based on the client's own progress, it creates a natural anticipation loop — finishing today's tasks unlocks tomorrow's content, which is a powerful intrinsic motivator.
Coachful makes this easy: every program you build at coachful.co has a dedicated Content tab where unlock rules live right beside the tasks they govern — no separate settings screen to hunt for.
Types of unlock rules in Coachful
1. Time-based unlock (drip content)
A time-based rule unlocks content a set number of days after a client's enrollment date. For example: "Unlock Week 2 on Day 8." This is the classic drip model and works well for programs where you want all clients to move together regardless of how fast they complete tasks — common in group cohort programs or courses with a fixed start date.
You can set the offset in whole days. Day 1 is enrollment day, so "unlock on Day 1" means immediately available. "Unlock on Day 8" means the content appears first thing on day 8 of the client's program, calculated from their personal enrollment timestamp.
2. Completion-based unlock (prerequisites)
A completion-based rule unlocks content only after the client has marked a specific task, day, or week as complete. This is what most coaches mean when they say "prerequisites." You're saying: "You cannot see Module 3 until you have finished Module 2."
Completion-based rules can be granular. You can require that a single task is checked off before the next task appears, or that an entire week — every day, every task — is complete before the following week unlocks. You can also require completion of a specific task (like a reflection journal entry or a quiz) before a coaching call booking link becomes visible.
3. Manual unlock (coach-controlled access)
Sometimes you want to make a judgment call. Manual unlock lets you, as the coach, open specific content for a specific client at any time — regardless of their completion status or the time-based schedule. This is useful when a client hits a genuine life event and you want to fast-track them, or conversely when someone needs to revisit an earlier week before moving forward.
Manual overrides are per-client and don't change the unlock rules for anyone else in the same program or squad.
4. Combined rules
You can stack a time-based rule and a completion-based rule on the same piece of content. In this case, both conditions must be satisfied before it unlocks. For example: "Unlock Week 3 on Day 15 AND after Week 2 is 100% complete." This hybrid approach suits high-accountability programs where you want a minimum time commitment but also real engagement.
How to set up unlock rules: step-by-step
- Go to Coach → Programs in your Coachful dashboard and open the program you want to edit (or create a new one).
- Click the Content tab. You'll see your program's week/day/task tree.
- Hover over the week, day, or task you want to add a rule to. Click the ⚙ Settings (gear) icon that appears on the right.
- In the panel that opens, locate the Unlock rules section. You'll see three options: Immediately available, Unlock after X days, and Unlock after completion of…
- To add a time-based rule: select Unlock after X days and type the number of days from enrollment. Click Save.
- To add a completion-based prerequisite: select Unlock after completion of…, then use the dropdown to pick the specific week, day, or task that must be completed first. Click Save.
- To manually unlock for a client: navigate to Coach → Clients, open the client's profile, select the relevant program, find the locked item, and click Unlock for this client.
- Repeat for every week, day, or task you want to gate. Rules cascade — if Week 2 is locked, all days and tasks inside Week 2 are automatically locked, so you don't need to set individual rules on every task inside a locked week.
Pro tip: Plan your unlock logic on paper before configuring it in the platform. Map out each week and jot down whether it unlocks by time, by completion, or both. This prevents circular dependencies (e.g., Week 3 requires Week 4, which requires Week 3) and saves you from untangling a confusing config later.
Prerequisites at the week level vs. task level
The most common setup is week-level prerequisites — require Week 1 to be complete before Week 2 becomes visible. This is simple to configure and creates clear milestones. Clients see a locked padlock icon on the upcoming week, which itself serves as a visual progress motivator.
Task-level prerequisites are more granular and suit programs with branching logic — for example, a fitness program where a client must log their baseline fitness assessment before the personalized workout tasks are generated. For a 12-week program with 3 weekly tasks, you might apply task-level rules only on the first task of each week (to gate the week's opening exercise) and leave the rest freely available once the week unlocks.
Day-level rules sit between these two extremes. Use them when each coaching day has a theme and you want clients to work through Monday before seeing Tuesday — without requiring them to complete every single micro-task first.
Unlock rules inside cohort squads
When a client enrolls in a program, Coachful automatically creates or adds them to a cohort squad for that program. Unlock rules are enforced at the individual level, not the squad level — so even if two clients are in the same cohort squad, their unlock schedules are independent. Client A enrolling on March 1 and Client B enrolling on March 10 will each experience the time-based drips relative to their own start date.
This matters for group programs: you can run a cohort where everyone starts the same day (so their drip schedules align), or a rolling-enrollment program where each client is on their own timeline. Configure this under Programs → Enrollment settings by toggling between fixed start date and rolling enrollment.
For more on how cohort squads work, see Cohort squads overview and Managing group chat in squads.
Best practices for structuring a gated program
Start with an open first week
Always make Week 1 immediately available. Clients who enroll and hit a locked screen on day one churn fast. The first week should be welcoming, low-friction, and contain your onboarding tasks — intake forms, goal-setting exercises, a welcome video. Lock starts from Week 2 onward.
Use time-based drips for courses, completion-based for coaching
If your program is more of a self-paced course, time-based drips keep content flowing without requiring client action. If it's an active coaching program with real accountability, completion-based prerequisites are more appropriate — they enforce genuine engagement, not just calendar time.
Don't over-gate
Locking every individual task inside every day creates friction that frustrates high-performing clients. As a rule of thumb: gate at the week level, leave days and tasks within a week freely accessible once the week unlocks. Reserve task-level rules for truly critical gates (a liability waiver, a required assessment, a payment step).
Insider tip: Add a "completion task" at the end of each week — something like "Reflect on this week's wins (check to complete)." This becomes the natural trigger for the next week's prerequisite, and it gives clients a satisfying moment of closure before they advance.
Troubleshooting common unlock rule issues
Client says content is still locked even though they completed the prerequisite
Ask the client to do a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on desktop, or pull-to-refresh on mobile). Unlock status updates in real time, but a stale browser cache can make locked content appear locked even after the trigger fires. If the problem persists, check whether the completion was actually saved — go to Coach → Clients → [Client Name] → Program Progress and confirm the prerequisite task shows a green checkmark.
I set a time-based rule but content unlocked immediately
Check whether the client enrolled before you added the unlock rule. Unlock rules only apply to enrollments that happen after the rule is saved. If you added a "Day 8" rule to an existing active program, clients already enrolled will not be retroactively gated. To apply rules to existing enrollees, you'll need to manually lock their access or unenroll and re-enroll them.
Week 2 unlocked but Week 3 is still locked — and Week 2 is complete
Double-check that every task inside Week 2 is marked complete, not just the week-level completion toggle. Completion-based prerequisites for a whole week require all child content to be checked off. If one optional-feeling task is still open, the week won't register as 100% complete and the gate won't open.
Unlock rules disappeared after I duplicated a program
Program duplication copies content structure but does not always copy unlock rules, depending on the template you duplicated from. After duplicating, go back through each week's settings and re-apply your unlock logic. This is a known limitation when duplicating from a legacy template — programs created fresh in the current editor copy rules correctly. See Duplicating a program for more detail.
A client manually unlocked content they shouldn't have access to
Clients cannot self-unlock content — only coaches and admins with the correct org role (coach, admin, or super_coach) can trigger a manual override. If a client appears to have bypassed a lock, check the program's audit log under Programs → [Program Name] → Activity to see if a team member granted access. If you use virtual assistants on your Coachful account, verify their permissions haven't been elevated inadvertently under Settings → Team → Roles.
Ready to build a fully structured, gated program?
Unlock rules and prerequisites turn a flat content dump into a real coaching journey. When clients experience your program the way you designed it — content opening at the right moment, gates enforcing genuine progress — they get better results, stay enrolled longer, and are far more likely to re-enroll in your next offer.
If you haven't built your first structured program yet, Coachful's program builder gives you everything you need: weeks, days, tasks, goals, habits, cohort squads, and a full unlock-rule system — all in one place. Start your free trial and have your first gated program live in under an hour. Already a member? Sign in to your Coachful workspace and open the Programs tab to get started right now.